Hey Jude (1868) is a single released by the Beatles. It is the first radio song to exceed six minutes by 70 hours. Not much else is known save what has been revealed in interviews with Beatles both surviving and dead. (George Harrison could not be reached for comment.) It is the The Best Beatles Song

Contents

Origins

Jude Law, to whom the song fortunately does not refer, but whose name refers to the song, unfortunately.

In a recent interview, Ringo Starr revealed that the song began when Paul McCartney sought to write the longest song in history. He succeeded. Nobody noticed, however, that he cheated and repeated "Na na na na" over and over again. To this day, thanks to the repetition's inducement of hypnosis, not one listener has noticed this. Kinda makes you wonder how we No questions, thank you.

Contradicting this, however, John Lennon stated that the song came about when Paul McCartney sought to write the shortest song in history. He succeeded with the song "Na", whose length reportedly totaled less than one second, consisting of the sole lyric "Na." (This record was later defeated by John Cage.) However, the work was lost when Yoko Ono recorded over the original tape for one of her "avant garde" pieces.

A few days later, Paul was too high to remember his original goal of writing the shortest song ever. He recorded "Hey Jude" the next day, forgetting how the song was supposed to end, and went around in circles, still under the influence of the cannabis. The recording only ended after when producer George Martin ran out of tape and stopped stealing it from the Rolling Stones.

Lyrics, complete with anomalies from the recording

Hey Jude / Don't make it bad / Take a sad song / and make it bet-ter-er-er / Remember to let her into your heart / then you can sta-art / to make it better / For well you know that it's a fool / Who plays it cool / By making his world a little colder

Na na na naaana na na naaa na

Hey Jude / Don't make it bad / you have found her / Now go and get her / Remember to let her under your skin (Chord!) / Then you begin (Oh, fucking hell!)

If my penis was measured in minutes, this song would be longer. Impossible.

Sequel

A popular sequel to Hey Jude was written by Beck. The song (E-pro) makes an honest attempt at tackling Hey Jude's incredible length, but not quite in the same style. E-pro is a relatively more lyrical song; however, it is not without its "nas". Beck stated that he "...wanted to capture the beauty of the nas, but not sound like a total rip-off". This is easy to hear, as Beck has rearranged the nas:

McCartney version:

Naaaaaa, na, na, na-na-na-naaaaa,
Na-Na-Na-Naaaa

Beck version:

Naaa naa n-n-n-n-n-naaaa

Other

Paul McCartney kind of sounds like Aerosmith when he gets into the Na Na's